Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Perhaps a natural consequence of giving too much of myselfto too many people on a given day,that later shift in the middle of the week that just shits all over the routine I try to build for myself,leading to that extra mid-day coffee that I justify because it’s going to be a later night—leading to a much later night than it would have been—practicing the progressive muscle relaxation, mindfulness, controlled breathing skillsthat I recommend to so many clients,until I get up to make some tea (which will wake me later I’m sure when I finally do get to sleep)and realize I haven’t written anything poetic or horribly self-expressivein a very long time,and I have a moment of poet-ception as I write this lineand feel almost bad for the reader for getting him/her/themselves into this mess,

but maybe you’re already in a messand it’s comforting to know that you’renot the only one.

Thursday, December 1, 2016

(Toronto, ON) – Just in time for the
holidays, seasoned Toronto hip hop artist MC
FÜBB (pronounced “emcee foob”) is proud to announce the release of his new
EP: FÜBB
Unlimited.The seven track album is produced exclusively by Toronto beatmaker
Justunlimited, with guest artist features
by Mississauga emcee Es (Toronto
Independent Music Awards 2015 winner for “Best Urban Artist”), KRS-ONE cosigned
emcee Bad Newz, and DJ Xplisit (“Toronto’s Craziest
Beatboxing DJ”). Being his fifth official non-mixtape album released since his
debut EP Foundations back in 2009, FÜBB Unlimited is a testament to the
persistence and tenacity of an artist committed to improving his craft and
developing an extensive body of work.

Here are MC FÜBB’s own words on his new
project:

On the surface, the reason for the title of this album is
straightforward (MC FÜBB + Justunlimited = FÜBB Unlimited). It’s about an
emcee/poet and a producer/beat-maker combining their talents to make something
that neither of them could have created on their own – music created through
the efforts of their synergy. It’s a work of art that can be enjoyed by
listeners today and will remain available for future generations to come, long
after we are no longer here to make new music.

On a deeper level, creating this EP has given me pause to reflect on
my career as a hip hop artist; a lot has changed in my life since I started
taking my rapping seriously over seven years ago. In recent years, I’ve drifted
away from my fixation on the dream of “making it” as an artist in the music
business and toward a life that is fulfilling in a broader sense: the kind of
life where I can be fulfilled and “make it” in a variety of different ways. But
despite a recalibration of the priorities in my life, I continue to heed the
call of the pen and pad, the microphone and the recording booth. Regardless of
what else I’m up to in my life, I feel the need to express myself creatively
and to transform my raw experience into something tangible that can stand the
test of time.

Perhaps it’s a way that we, as artists, try to cheat death – a way
to overcome the existential dread that comes with the realization that our time
on this earth is limited. Against the backdrop of the infinite, we are flashes
in the pan of existence. But in the context of the lives we touch through our
words and actions – be it through the structures we build, walls we tear down,
or works of art we create – we have a chance to leave a legacy behind after we
die. In that sense, the potential difference that our lives can make is truly
unlimited.

My hope is that listeners’ lives are impacted by our
music for the better, if even just for a moment, as they take in this new EP.

Monday, November 21, 2016

I am a former of student of yours – I took the “Personality and its Transformations” and “Maps of Meaning” courses that you taught at the University of Toronto during my undergraduate years, where I double majored in psychology and philosophy.

I am writing this letter to you directly, but also publishing it publicly in the hopes that it furthers the advancement of the current conversation/controversy that you are surrounded in at this time. I am doing this for three reasons:

I hope to provide you with some thoughts for self-reflection about the issues at hand, not because I am sure that you need assistance in your process of self-reflection or because I am sure that reading this letter will benefit you, but because I genuinely want to be helpful;

I want to aid in my own process of reflection and to help contextualize my own thoughts and feelings on these matters (and I thank you for validating my proclivity for using the written word for such purposes during my time as your student); and

I hope to provide some food for thought for others who are currently following the recent controversy (especially those who seem to follow you unquestioningly with the passion of zealots).

I distinctly remember a moment during one of your Maps of Meaning lectures years ago wherein a student raised his hand and asked a question: “Why are you teaching us all of this?” Your answer rings loud and clear to me in my memory: “I want you to be free of ideological possession.” Your thesis has stuck with me to this day because I find it cogently and concisely sums up a major reason why seemingly rational and normal human beings can seem to become the embodiments of evil, something we have seen (and continue to see) far too often throughout the course of history. It helped me to make a little more sense out of the unfathomability of my own ancestry: my grandparents were survivors of Nazi concentration camps. It has helped me to more clearly recognize and appreciate the strength with which underlying assumptions about the world – call them ideologies, schemas, or unconscious beliefs – shape the realities of individuals, families, communities, and societies as a whole. I say all of this because I want to be clear that I value and largely agree with your cautions about the dangers of being “ideologically possessed”; I hold you in high regard as one of the more insightful and thought-provoking professors I had during my undergraduate years at U of T.

I appreciate the extent to which you acknowledge the fallibility of human beings, particularly their blind-spots: their biases, their emotional reasoning, and their logical fallacies. It was a point you made again at the debate this past Saturday morning as you were pitted against (what seemed to be) two interlocutors who did not share your fears and concerns about the insidious motives lurking behind bill C-16 and the “social justice warrior” agenda to silence those whose views do not conform with theirs. To some who have been following this unfolding drama, you have been painted as a hate-monger, an ignorant bigot, and the prototypical “privileged white male professor sitting in his ivory tower.” To others, you are seen as a courageous martyr, a warrior for truth and freedom, and a brilliant psychologist/professor who is being fundamentally misunderstood by a naïve world. I would argue that those who view you at either end of such an extreme spectrum are, to borrow your phrase, ideologically possessed by polarized, overly simplified perspectives, the origins of which and the reasons for I will not begin to speculate here.

As for myself, in accordance with my own humanistic beliefs, I view you as a man who is striving to stand up for what he believes is right. I see a man who earnestly believes that there is danger lurking in the shadows and is trying his best to shine light on it in order to prevent its influence and reach from growing. And I see a man who feels that he has his back against the wall, who is afraid of what is happening in the world around him, and even more afraid of what may be coming down the road.

As I think back at all of the knowledge I gleaned from you in your lectures and writing, all of the insights and perspectives you shared with myself and my fellow class-mates, I also recall certain off-hand comments you made to us at times. Some that I can still hear echoing in my memory include: “If you believe that, then you’re an idiot!” and “If you think that, then you’re just plain wrong.” I recall these comments now not simply for their (perhaps?) inadvertent crassness and their (unintentionally?) entertaining shock-value. I recall them because within the tone and the very nature of the content of these statements, I can’t help but find an inherent arrogance – a definitive, dismissive quality of cocksureness that is, I think, unbecoming of a man who claims to recognize the uncertainty, fallibility, and tenuous nature of the human mind’s grasp on reality. I recall these statements because I have seen/heard them again in some of your recent statements, lectures, and debates regarding the issues surrounding Bill C-16. I point them out to you now because I think they may be symptomatic of one of the reasons that you find yourself in the position that you’re currently in.

Rather than make psychoanalytic assumptions about you, I would like to pose you a series of questions – ones that I have been wondering in light of recent events:

Is it possible for any human being, including yourself, to be fully free of biases, mental blind-spots, and underlying assumptions that may be erroneous? Is it possible for any human being, including yourself, to be completely “free of ideological possession” of one sort or another? Is there such a thing as a “completely analyzed analyst,” one who can view certain phenomena which such a degree of objectivity that he/she/they/[insert preferred gender pronoun here] are free of the grips of the unconscious? Can anyone truly see so clearly that they have broken free of the inherently subjective nature of human consciousness itself? If I had to venture a guess, I imagine that your answer to these questions would be: “probably not.”

I implore you then, Dr. Peterson, to ask yourself how you can justify presenting yourself as being so sure as to the rightness of the stance you have taken recently regarding Bill C-16 and the issue of transgender rights? Is it not possible that the decades you have spent researching totalitarian regimes and their ideological underpinnings, your own education and theoretical orientations as a psychologist, your own personal upbringing, history, and life experiences have led you to see things in a certain way? Is it not possible that given your own beliefs, your own findings based on your extensive study of various texts and academic research, that you have nurtured in yourself a bias to assimilate your perceptions of events and personal experiences to fit a particular worldview? Is it not possible that in your attempts to make sense of what seems to be an often dangerous and unpredictable world composed largely of irrational and idiotic human beings, you have oversimplified your views on the nature of good and evil, right and wrong, freedom and oppression?

I ask you these questions not because I am sure that you’re wrong about what you believe to be the truth in these matters. I ask, rather, in the hopes that you will not take your sense of rightness as proof that you are, in fact, right – no matter how logical, rational, intuitive, or well-informed your arguments seem to be. I remember you cautioning myself and my fellow students against putting too much stock the in veracity of rationalization – the most valid of arguments does not guarantee its soundness. The human faculty of reason can justify just about any position, provided that certain premises remain beyond the reach of scrutiny and thorough questioning.

For what it’s worth, here are some of my brief reflections on recent events:

I think that you’ve made some harmful overgeneralizations about the people who are advocating for the rights of transgendered people. In labelling the entire cause of transgender rights as a front for “PC authoritarians,” “Marxists,” and the “radical/fringe left,” you have also (perhaps inadvertently) called into question the validity of the cause itself. This sort of “guilt by association” reasoning, which you may or may not actually espouse, is communicated to those who look up to you: students who listen to your lectures, watch your videos, and hang on to your every word. I do not doubt the existence of the “radical leftist” people of whom you speak (I encountered my fair share of them during my undergraduate years), and I agree when you say that they are likely not representative of the trans-rights movement as a whole. However, by focusing so exclusively on them and what you imagine their motives and influence to be regarding bill C-16, you have framed the issue of transgender rights in a very particular way – one that I believe suits your own motives, beliefs, and worldviews much more than the actual spirit and letter of the law itself.

You, yourself, have been accused of fostering intolerance and fomenting aggression towards transgendered people on campus, largely because certain ill-informed, neo-Nazi types seem to gravitate toward your messages and use them as fuel for their own intolerance. Would it be fair to say that because such people have been drawn to your rallies, people who wave the banner of “free speech” over their heads as justification for their own transphobia and hatred, that your motives must secretly be steeped in neo-Nazi ideologies? Of course not. But when you frame issues a certain way based on your own preconceptions about the world (which we all inherently do), you are likely to start mistaking shadows for actual monsters.

There is much more I could write, but I realize that this letter has already become quite lengthy and that both time and attention are precious, limited resources in our world. I would like to end with one final point: I don’t believe that there is such a thing as absolute freedom. The freedom of speech that we enjoy must be tempered by our own sense of responsibility for what we say. As a psychologist sworn to a code of ethics which includes a responsibility to society at large and as a professor at a prominent academic institution, this responsibility is amplified for you. If the way in which you frame your arguments and exercise your right to free speech does, in fact, lead to ostracism from your colleagues, anger from minority communities, and the increased boldness of racists, misogynists, and bigots, then you have a duty to very seriously examine the impact of your words and actions.

I would be happy to discuss these matters further with you, if that is something you would like to do.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

What
happened yesterday in Paris is a tragedy. The loss of human life is always a
tragedy. The murdering of innocent people is an unqualifiedly terrible thing.

Many people's instant reaction will be anger - this is
normal and justified. However, if we react and form judgments solely from that
anger, we are bound to perpetuate a global cycle of violence that has plagued
humankind since time immemorial. We need to take the time to calm ourselves, to
regulate our emotions, and then to think and make choices that will transform
the landscape of how we respond to such terrible acts.

When something awful happens that doesn't fit our current
worldview, our minds demand an explanation. Such gruesome acts of
human-on-human violence, especially when they happen in a modern, “Western,”
urban centre like Paris, do not fit most people's view of how the world is
supposed to be. It shakes the foundational beliefs that we operate with in
order to function in the world – beliefs regarding our safety, the progress of
human civilization, and justice. Because of this discomfort, this
anxiety-producing cognitive dissonance, we need demand quick answers. We need
quick, simple, understandable explanations to contain the anomaly of human
carnage that we have just witnessed or read about. And to this demand, we all
too often rely on others – the media, our friends and family, etc. – to offer
us easily digestible accounts of what happened.

This is
where language serves a vital function for us. We rely on words: terrorism,
evil, Islamic fundamentalism, psychopaths, radicals, etc. These words are
powerful because they denote and contain within them an entire range of
complicated human problems. Most vitally for us, they act as containers for our
anger, our rage, and our disbelief at the cruelty we are capable of as human
beings.

When we
resort to these labels, we form conclusions that allow us to distance ourselves
from the anxiety and difficult questions that we may otherwise have to face
when we learn of such horrendous events. We other
the individuals responsible for these heinous acts: terrorists, savages, madmen, barbarians,etc. In essence, we contain the anomaly within subgroups of people
– other people – that we insist we do
not and could never belong to. This becomes even more destructive when we overgeneralize
based on these labels: Islamic fundamentalism becomes “the Muslim world,” “Arabs,”
“Muslims,” “Islam,” etc. Some of us become racists and bigots who feel
justified in our reasoning. We become as rigidly attached to our own fundamentalist
beliefs as those who belong to the target groups that we dehumanize and demonize
(if you really want a sampling of the kind of ignorance and racism I’m
referring to, just read the comment sections of news articles and YouTube
videos covering these incidents on the internet. Also, bring a barf bag).

By relying
on these mental heuristics, these labels and stereotypes, we don’t need to
fully confront our own difficult emotions that have been stirred up by the
news. We don’t need to think and ask important questions about these events
(e.g. why do these things keep on happening over and over again in our world?).
We already have our answers. The problem is them,
and we are not one of them, so the
solution is simple: continue to try to fight and kill them before they kill us so
that the rest of us can go on with our merry lives. Look at the example of
America’s response to 9/11. Nearly 3000 Americans were killed in the World
Trade Centre attacks. The response: all-out war against those who were
perceived to represent the reason for this attack. The results? To date, approximately
6,800 American soldiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have
been killed, most of them civilians (actual numbers vary widely depending on
reporting sources).

But let’s
interrupt that process for a moment. Let’s take the time to calm ourselves
before we form our conclusions; to sit back, think, and ask ourselves the
important questions. Most importantly, why does this kind of shit keep
happening? I don’t claim to have all the answers for this question, but if you’re
willing to actually do some research, there are many who have written about
possible causes.

Note
that, like the history of most places on this planet, incidents of human terror
against other humans is not limited to recent times. You’ll also note that many
of the incidents that have happened in recent decades are attributes to “Islamists,”
“Jihadists,” or “Fundamentalists” of one kind or another.

Here
are just a few perspectives on how Muslim people in general have been received
in France:

The
point of these examples is not to “blame the victims” of yesterday’s events. The
purpose of this writing is not to blame
France for its own racism or history of Colonialism. These mass murders cannot
be justified. However, that doesn’t mean they can’t be explained and
understood.

France
is just one country representative of problems that have been replicated on a
global scale over and over again by different people and nations over history.
Localized events like this are microcosms for global events. The global history
and climate of oppression, of imperialism and colonialism, of exploitation,
inequity, and state-funded terror against entire countries is part of this
problem. The Paris attacks are a symptom of a divided world based on a history
of broken foreign policies.

There
are many in this world seething with anger and rage against the “Western world”
and all that it represents. We are the other
that is responsible for the death, destruction, and despair faced by millions
of people in the Middle East, Africa, and other parts of the globe. In the eyes
of those who we brand as terrorists, we
are the terrorists. And if you look simply at casualty rates, maybe we are,
as many will label us, “the real
terrorists.”

Andy Singer

So
where does this leave us? How can we all respond differently to these events so
as to not perpetuate the same cycles of violence, death, and despair that continually
plague the human race?

I can only share with you my own reaction and process to hearing the news.

When
I read the first headlines, I was alarmed, but not surprised. My worldview is
one in which I think that such events are commonplace and I’ve come to consider
them as horrendous but expected occurrences given the type of world we live in.
I got angry. I thought of all those people who were out living their lives and
were murdered while innocently doing so. But the anger quickly left me – I let
it go. And that’s when I felt the core emotion underneath my anger: sadness. I
feel deeply saddened by the recent events in Paris. I am sad that we do this to
one another over and over again. I am sad because I believe that in the grand
scheme of things, the world’s reactions to these attacks likely won’t result in
anything changing for the better.

As
much as I am upset and saddened by the actions of the people who carried out
these attacks, as much as I want to hate them and demonize them for their
cruelty, I refuse to. I refuse to other
the people that did this. As I’ve mentioned, I think that this “othering”
process is a core part of the problem in how we treat each other as human
beings. But on a more fundamental, personal level, I cannot other these people
because I acknowledge that given the wrong set of circumstances, I could have
been one of them. Had any one of us been born into the environment that these
people were born into, been exposed to whatever experiences, horrors, and
ideologies these people were exposed to, we could have been them.

We all have the capacity to be monsters. We all also have
the capacity to be more than that. Those of us who are privileged enough to
have the relative peace, safety, security, and time to reflect have the
opportunity to consciously choose how we want to be in the world. We need to
exercise our responsibility to choose.

So today, despite my anger and sadness and fear, I choose
not to hate. I choose not to demonize the people who carried out these attacks.
I choose to strive to understand rather than to contain and separate myself
from the horror. I choose to write these words to help me process my own
experience, and hopefully make a difference in how you process yours.

Neither pride nor shame can keep us,
not for long,
not from life,
from emotions that speak our truth,
that we hide behind hands,
looking away as if we could avoid
getting wet in an ocean,
clinging to flotsam,
planks of wood, anything
to keep us from being immersed,
from feeling too much,
like worms that fear the dirt,
bats that fear nightfall,
as we walk around
trying to suppress sneezes
in dusty, pollen-filled air.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

John Sauber was always known to us grandchildren as Zaidy John. Zaidy John was a bit of a superhero to my brothers and me growing up. I remember being in awe of his physical fitness, nutritional expertise (thanks in large part to my Bubbie Blemah), and his strength – I have distinct memories of him lifting up my brother Jesse and I, one on each arm, and each of us clinging on to his rock-hard biceps. I remember many birthday cards and letters to overnight summer-camp written in his perfect, almost computer-like penmanship – evidence of the fact that he would have made a fine surgeon. Going over to Bubbie and Zaidy’s was always an exciting time – sharing in his love of cooking and baking, eating special but healthy foods, playing games, going swimming, sweating in the dry sauna, and playing with the weightlifting equipment in the gym in their building. Zaidy had a way of cupping the water in his hands in the swimming pool and squirting it up like a fountain. I also remember his trick of seemingly removing his thumb and putting it back on – even when I found out how he did it, I could never do it quite as well as he did. I remember once after going swimming with Zaidy and showering to get the chlorine smell off in the change-room, I realized that I had forgotten my dry change of clothes up in his condo; he showed me how to wrap my towel around myself so that we could walk back upstairs together without me having to put my wet bathing suit back on. It was the small, caring gestures like this, the little, consistent kindnesses that embody the warmth, love, and good humour that Zaidy John provided for us as grandchildren. There was warmth in his eyes and excitement in his voice whenever he greeted us, a feeling of playfulness and safety when he was around. He was a source of nurturance, reassurance, and a role-model for us in our younger years, a symbol of both strength and compassion, of both joyful living and responsibility. Through his levity, wit, and kindness, he conveyed a feeling of unconditional positive regard, giving us an example of who we might aspire to be in the world.

My Zaidy John didn’t have an easy life. In his late teens, he and his family were among the hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews who fell victim to the Nazis in World War II. As my brothers and I grew older, Zaidy shared some of the horror stories of his past with us on several occasions. Over the years, I wrote poems inspired by what he told us, some of which I’ve included here:

…after the war,/after being liberated from hell on earth,/Zaidy told me how he waited,/how every day he checked the lists,/hoping, yearning, anticipating/the reunion with his family.//But that day never came.//I can only imagine the depression,/the despair and the loneliness/upon realizing that they were gone,/not knowing if, how, when, or where they died,/the uncertainty of whether or how/to move on, to start again,/to live./

But somehow Zaidy John did live on. He survived, and he did much more than that. He immigrated to Canada, started a business, a family, and created a new life for himself. Our biological grandfather on our father’s side passed away before we were born, and so we never got a chance to know him. Through John’s marriage to our Bubbie Blemah later in his life, however, we were given the gift of having a paternal grandfather. By simply being who he was, Zaidy John taught us that family need not be determined by flesh and blood alone; he taught us that family is something we can choose to create through our word and our commitment, through our love and generosity.

He recalled to us on more than one occasion the warmth, love, and innocence of his childhood with his mother, father, and sister, and the subsequent tragedy of losing many of them in the Holocaust. Through being a part of our family, however, John also provided us with a vivid example of transcendence, the ability of the human spirit to turn towards love despite great reasons to fall into sorrow.

My brother Jesse fondly recalls a road trip that he and John took to Pennsylvania one year for his grandchildren Daniel and Kyla’s bar and bat mitzvahs. As he recalls, Zaidy insisted on driving the whole way, and they even ended up in a pub late one night and eating junk food after a long day's drive. Jesse remembers this as a special trip and experience with John, and it holds a warm place in his heart.

Some of the fondest memories I have of my time with Zaidy are the fishing trips we went on together. I remember standing on a dock with Zaidy, going through various lures and baits in our tackle boxes, and casting out into the water together on a warm summer day. Neither of us caught anything off that dock, but it didn’t matter; I was utterly content to just be there, to be with him – fishing together with my Zaidy. Another time we were out on the lake together in a small boat and it started pouring rain – we got soaked on the way back in, but, again – it didn’t matter. We laughed about it and made the best of it.

“Sometimes the past still comes up,”/he told me on our last fishing trip together./“It’s a part of me that will never go away.”//I’m grateful/that my Zaidy was courageous enough/to tell me what he went through.//I’m grateful that he was a survivor,/that he not only survived/but lived on after his real-life nightmare.//I’m grateful that he didn’t use going through hell/as an excuse not to try to create his own version of heaven on earth.//And I’m grateful that despite all the love he lost,/despite the pain of losing his entire family,/the memories, the dreams,/the questions without answers,/I’m grateful that he still loved,/that he still gave of himself,/that he refused to let his past/shape who he was in this world/and who he still is to me.

John’s resilient spirit persisted even as the challenges of illness and old age fell upon him. When my Bubbie Blemah began to develop Alzheimer’s dementia, my Zaidy was faced with another immense challenge in his life – he had to watch his partner and best friend slowly slip away, helpless at the mercy of an insidious disease. But even in his last several years, as his own health declined and my Bubbie’s mind deteriorated, he still loved and cared for her. Moments of genuine tenderness and affection were evident when we visited him; his love and devotion shone through all of the difficulties he was facing. His patience and compassion were more gifts that my Zaidy gave to the world.

Over the past several years, I didn’t see Zaidy as much as I would have liked to. In my last visit with him at his home, I expressed my regret to him; I told him that I wished I had kept in better contact and been there for him more. He just looked at me and said: “the past is the past.” He told me that he understood that I was busy and living my life, which I know is what he wanted for me. Despite this, I still feel some regret. I think that I should have made more of an effort to make time for him, to call and visit more often, to repay him for the love and kindness that he showed me growing up. But I also realize now that Zaidy never placed those expectations on me. He always only wanted what was best for me and never asked me for anything in return. In some of the darkest and most difficult times in my life, he offered me support and encouragement; he let me know I was loved, that I would get through what I was going through, and he affirmed the strength that he saw in me.

Today I am saddened not only because I’ve lost my Zaidy, a tremendous man and a source of unconditional love in my life, but also because I’ve lost the last living Holocaust survivor that I knew personally. I’ve lost one of my heroes. I feel a responsibility to carry his memory with me, both the legacy of family, kindness, and generosity that he instilled in me, and the history of adversity and hardship that he was forced to live through for the simple fact that he was born a Jew. John’s life reinforced in me the belief that discrimination and prejudice against our fellow human beings is fundamentally wrong and destructive, regardless of the basis upon which we discriminate. He was a living testament to the virtues of acceptance, tolerance, kindness, and the freedom that we all have to choose how we will face the adversities that life inevitably presents us. I’m grateful to have known my Zaidy John, and I will never forget.

I want to close with a poem that I wrote for Zaidy several years ago. It’s called, “Change”:

I never understood/why your life was so hard/nor how you could go on/after all the pain you endured.//You lived through the Holocaust of World War II/and now you live through the holocaust/of your wife’s faltering mind.//You know, more than most,/how drastic change can be.//I don’t know why/someone as wonderful as you/should have so much hardship in his life,/but I’d be damned/if I didn’t know why/you are here today.//I remember/when you told my brothers and I/about living in the concentration camps./I remember a story you told us/about a father and son/who fought over the equal splitting/of a piece of bread/and I remember you telling us/that they did not survive.//I remember/and I listened/and I listen still/to every word you say.//Because, Zaidy,/you are one of the few people/in this world/that I can truly call/my hero.//I don’t know how/you found the strength/to move on after the war;/to change your mentality/from despair to determination.//I don’t know how/you find the patience and perseverance/to deal with Bubbie’s condition/day in and day out,/but I know that you do/and that is real courage.//I don’t care what blood/we do or do not share./you are my Zaidy,/I am your grandson,/and that will never change.//I thank God for knowing you/and I thank you for all you are,/all you do,/and all the love you share.//But most of all, I thank you for/finding the strength to live/and for being a beacon of light/in this seemingly darkening,/always changing world.//In the times that your light dims,/when you feel drained,/scared or uncertain,/I will be here for you.//Together/we will share our bread/and we will survive,/together.//I love you, Zaidy John,/and that will never change.

MC FÜBB has been writing poetry since the age of 9. Gradually, he became introduced to hip-hop and has since fell in love with the music and the culture. He began writing rhymes and rapping at the age of 15, and has made numerous, tremendous changes and transformations as an artist and an individual since then. He raps for the love of hip-hop, for creative self-expression, and most of all to carry a conscious-minded, (overall) positive message to those who take the time to listen. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Science, majoring in both Psychology and Philosophy, holds a Masters of Education degree in Counselling and Psychotherapy from OISE (also part of U of T), and is a practicing Registered Psychotherapist. He hopes to create a positive difference in the world through his work and his music – one listener at a time.